Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Brotherly Love... Gone wrong...

... as we pulled up to the playground, the kids ran out to play while we got things situated in the car.  I looked out and saw Ben pushing Seth in the swing.  Not wanting to miss a tender, Kodak moment, I grabbed the camera and ran for the close up...

... but as I got closer...
    ... What I found...
         ... Was not Ben pushing Seth in the swing...

                ... but rather Ben trying to push Seth out of the swing...


... and then being very sad that he hadn't succeeded...

... ahh, yes, the joys of siblings...
(and yes, Ben did get his turn in the swing...)

Camping, and Playgrounds, and Zoos... oh My!!

Yep, we jumped on the bandwagon this year and did a little bit-o-camping (with our good friends, the Jacksons!) over Memorial Day weekend...

Jerry flew in from Prague at 3:00, and we were out the door about 4:30, ready to hit the camping site.  Don't ask me how we found a camp spot that late in the day, but sure enough we pulled right up to prime campgroud (i.e. nice and grassy, right by the bathroom, and shady!!).  


Some of the kiddos hangin by the fire, and trying out their new little flashlights... gearing up for some scary stories... (yep, crazy will and the Ox will live long in their memories...)


Jen and Ben - both tuckered out and ready for bed


Ellie feeding some breakfast to Ben


Joshy playing 'ball'... but not quite into the 'sharing' mode yet...


Sarah and Josh hangin out by the fire

Skipping rocks at the river


Daddy 'skipping' Sarah...


Our cute friends, Jeff and Marissa Jackson with their youngest, Caden


Seth took a little rest in the tent, but didn't want to go through the trouble of taking his shoes off...

After Camping, we headed out to a playground (that happened to be RIGHT by the campground - how fun is that??!)


Swings are always a hit with the kiddos :)
  
Seth mastered the monkey bars :)
Joshy with his own version of the monkey bars

... Then, we headed to the Zoo (also right next to the camp ground!!)

Joshy mesmerized by the eagles

Feeding the animals...



Jocelyn, Caden, Seth, Ben, Sarah, Ellie, and Jeff at the bird exhibit


... all of this in under 24 hours!! How's THAT for a speedy vacation??!

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Spirit Week...

To end spirit week, the kids had crazy hair day on Friday...

Seth chose a mohawk... (this is the only time he has EVER let me mess up his hair... and kept having to ask if I was SURE that it was crazy hair day, and if other kids would also be having crazy hair)...

And Sarah (after much deliberation) decided on a 'straight up' piggy tail...


The two 'crazy hair' kiddos

He got...

... to Prague (wahoo!!)
.... to give his presentation (wahoo!!)
... strep throat (not so wahoo...)

cross your fingers that he actually makes it back to the states, intact and on time!!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Just how smart is Jesus?

This was part of our dinner conversation tonight...

Sarah (in a bit of awe), "Mom, how did Jesus think of all of the names to name everything?"

Me, "I don't know, honey - he must be really smart."

Sarah, "Yea, He's smarter than EVERYONE.  Even moms and dads!"

Seth, "yea, He's so smart, he can tell what time it is right when he looks at the clock.  He just looks, and bluup, he knows what the time is!"  

(Part of Seth's homework today was telling the time in various clock positions...)

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

And now... the rest of the story... (aka, the saga continues!)...

Okay, in answer to some questions from the previous post (if you haven't read it - this won't make much sense...)...

The glass... we have a small hand mirror that is on the top shelf in the bathroom, right next to Jerry's toiletry bag.  When he was grabbing everything in such a hurry, his bag hit the mirror, sending it crashing to the ground (right while he was on the phone with the airline trying to figure out if he could make it to the next airport in time...)

... the shoes of the poor Asian woman - he did apologize profusely, and offered them all of the cash that he had with him... to which the man just scoffed and walked away. (Maybe due to the fact that all that he had with him was a whole $2??!)

... the front door - well it doesn't have a problem staying closed... that is when it doest get closed.  It's really hard to close all the way, and then it usually sticks when you try to open it, so many times during the day we just leave it open when the kids are going in and out (using the storm door at the 'main' door... so I have been known to leave the house for various errands/teaching etc. with the door still open.  Jerry, on the other hand, will ALWAYS close and lock the door on his way out (even if there are still people inside!), so it was pretty crazy that he would leave the house with the door wide open...

...  So, to continue on with the saga - he did make it on the plane in Rochester for the Tuesday flight (after another issue of them telling him he would have to pay $5,600... but luckily they did get through it a wee bit quicker, and he did get to Minneapolis)...

... But here's the kicker... the plane was scheduled to leave Minneapolis at 7:30.  I got a call at 8:00 from him... on the plane... taxiing back in from the runway... with 'mechanical errors'.  As of now, he is STILL sitting on the ground in Minneapolis, hoping to somehow still be able to fly half way around the world in order to give his presentation.

... I think it's a sign - he needs to take the rest of the week off and just come home!

We have officially entered the Twilight Zone...

... and it has nothing to do with vampires... (think the Original Twilight series :)  ).

Here is yet another taste into our random craziness... given in a two part series... her side/his side...

So Jerry is scheduled to go to Prague this week for yet another convention.  We have known this - we have been ready for this - just like all of the other trips... he leaves, he presents, he comes home - pretty routine, right?   Well, most of the time anyway...

Last night, when returning home from soccer, I had a little de ja vu moment...
... and kinda laughed about how this scenerio had just happened in a previous blog entry... but thought little more of it... until I went into the bedroom and saw this:
... which are jerry's scrubs from surgery days.  Why is this weird, you ask?  Well, Jerry had said he would be pretty late getting his presentation ready for Prague, so to see he had been home, but was randomly gone again was a bit weird.
    I thought he had rushed out to see the last bit of soccer, but not so.   I called his cell, no answer....
.... then as I went downstairs, I saw a random light on in the back storage room (where the suitcases are kept),  and thought he had probably started packing, but didn't see his suitcase anywhere.

... when I walked into the downstairs bathroom, I saw this in the garbage... 
... which isn't really that out of the blue - we have quite a few episodes of broken glass around here (although, most of them do involve kids)... so I didn't really worry, until I saw this...
... which again, normally isn't quite crazy, that is, unless you know my hubby.  Jerry is a bit on the ... ummm... anal, er, I mean EXTREMELY detail oriented side of things, and cleans up any spills, breaks, etc to the UTTER nuance of mess, so to see pieces of glass scattered did start me down the worry trail.

... So I called his phone - nothing.  I put the kids down, and watched a tv show - one that featured a kidnap victim who didn't answer the phone... not a good show to watch...

... and called again... still nothing.

Finally, at about 10:45, I got through to him... and got part 2 of the twilight series... His side...

... So Jerry had the flight booked months ago, and had Tuesday blocked off as his travel day, so had planned that Tuesday was his flight day. (you know where this is heading already, don't you... but wait, it gets better!!)...

... On Sunday, he tried to double check his itinerary 3 different times, but couldn't get into the Mayo system.

... On Monday, any break he got to try to double check his itinerary was interrupted by random crazy surgery complications, and one in particular took the entire afternoon.

... When he finally got a minute, at around 7:00 pm, he logged on, got into the itinerary, and saw that this...

had left the Rochester airport at 6:30 pm, and what he had thought was a Tuesday travel day was actually a Monday night-all day Tuesday travel day...

... which I am actually surprised that, for someone who has pretty much every detail planned and organized, did not cause a full on heart attach on the spot.

... He flew out of the clinic, threw some things in a suitcase, and made it to the minneaopolis airport (the connecting flight) in about 50 minutes (an 85 mile drive... you do the math...).

... He got to the counter, who told him he could still make the flight if he didn't check his luggage, so he went through security (and realized that he hadn't packed his 'liquid-like' things in neat little 3 oz bottles, so got to ditch most of the toiletry items...).

... He made it to the gate to get a boarding pass, only to be told that he would be able to get on the plane... for a fee of $250 (since it was considered a 'change of flight'), to which he quickly agreed to pay... only to have the lady put more information into the computer and come back with, "oh, wait, that will be a $5,600 fee.... (yes, you read that right, 5 THOUSAND, 6 HUNDRED dollars!)

... to which Jerry replied with the exact same phrase that you just thought, "Are you KIDDING me??!"  But no, she was not kidding in the least bit.  She tried to 'logically' explain that since he didn't get on in Rochester,  he would now have to purchase a whole new ticket, which was, $5,600.  To which Jerry tried to 'logically' explain back to her, "So, you are telling me, that there is an EMPTY seat in there, which I have ALREADY paid for, and I am standing right here, ready to claim, but in order for me to actually get into my reserved seat, which I have ALEARY paid for,  I have to purchase ANOTHER FULL ticket??!"  ... to which she didn't bat an eye as she told him that's exactly what he would have to do.

... after arguing for a bit, she sent him back to the main counter (outside of security, of course!), to speak with some managers, who also went back and forth, and then said they would try to work something out, so sent him BACK to the gate (and another trip through security)...

... by this time he was at a full sprint trying to make the gate... when an asian woman, speaking very little english, wearing a very thin, plastic flip flop sandal-type shoe stepped right in his path, causing the wheel of his suitcase to run over her foot... which broke the aforementioned strap on the flip flop... which women then got her husband and started following after Jerry.

... So he arrives at the ticket counter and starts the 'logical' discussion once again with the boarding agent, while at the same time being tapped on the shoulder by the husband of the broken-shoe woman who is ranting in broken english that Jerry broke his wife's shoe, while waving the shoe in Jerry's face. (Seriously, folks, I am NOT making this up!!!)

... The boarding agent would not be convinced, and the plane did pull away, with Jerry still in the airport, with crazy asian couple and a bunch of rude agents.  

... He made it back downstairs to speak with the manager, and after about 1  1/2 hours of deliberation, she finally took pity on him and let him do a 'change of flight' for the $250 instead of the whole new ticket... for the flight to leave on the next day... which means he just might make it to Prague just in time to give his presentation... (If he can exit the twilight zone by then, however).

   The poor guy finally made it home a little before midnight last night, and me, being the empathetic, kind wife that I am, laughed hysterically as he was relating all of the vivid details of his wreched ordeal, then spent the rest of the time begging him to let me blog about it (I mean, c'mon, this stuff is too good not to share, right??!).  It did take some convincing, but he finally relented, provided that nobody from work actually sees the blog.  So if you are reading this, and you happen to work with my hubby, you must erase from your mind what you have just read, and overcome any temptation (regardless of how great it is) to mock my poor, haggled and frazzled hubby :).

Are we really getting that old??!

... the kids have spirit week this week  - you remember - each day has a funky theme in which the kids get to dress up.  Yesterday was Pajama Day, today is hat day, and tomorrow is... dress like the 80's day... ??  Really - the 80's were SO long ago that it has become a relic??! 

... At first I thought... 'hey, the 80's weren't so crazy - what can I do to come up with costumes?'... and then I started remembering... banana clips... double neon colored layered socks... triple scrunchies in the side ponytail... leg warmers... oh yes - the options are growing by the second... :)
 

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

How to stage the prefect break in:

Step 1: As you are busily packing to leave for a trip,  let your 22 month old dump cards and files all over the office floor, and say to yourself, "I'll just deal with that when we get home (after all, who is going to see it while we are gone?!)..."

Step 2:
Have a computer desk inside the previously shown 'ransacked' office, with a space for a computer, but housing no computer...
Step 3:  Ask your sweet, kind neighbor (who has dealt with numerous crazy issues relating to your house and dog on previous trips, but who is just nice enough to still help you out...) to take your mail inside your house each day.  Go so far as to hand her your keys on your way out of town.  Then, on your last frantic trips inside the house for those "oh yea, we need this..." moments, forget to actually close the front door... and then leave for 5 days...

So that when the aforementioned sweet, kind neighbor comes to your house the next day and to dutifully bring in the mail, she will open the screen door and come face to face with this...
... who will then run back to her own house, call you, who advises her to call the police, who bring in their FOUR squad cars, complete with mammoth officer holding giant canine to investigate said house.... which start with them yelling, THIS IS THE POLICE, IF ANYONE IS IN THERE, VACATE THE PREMESIS NOW! (Nice wake up call to the neighbors on a Saturday morning!) Then have one of the officers call you to tell you they see the tell tail sign of a break in in the downstairs office with papers all over and an empty computer desk... to which you get to sheepishly reply that the scene was actually complimentary of the aforementioned 22 month old, and that you don't actually have a regular computer to sit on said computer desk...

... follow these simple steps, and you, too could stage the 'perfect break-in' ... (and give your sleepy, quite neighborhood something to talk about for many moons to come!!).

Monday, May 4, 2009

Some pictures....

... are just a bit beyond words...

... hey, at least it's not milk... or syrup... ya gotta give him props for branching out...